Pawn Stars: 7 Rare and Valuable Guitars

RICK: So what do we have here? I think there's something here that you'll really like to see. RICK: Okay. DAVID: An American-made 1963 Fender Stratocaster. RICK: Oh, for me, this is the guitar. But there is something very, very special about this particular guitar. RICK: Okay. DAVID: This guitar was actually played by Jimi Hendrix. RICK: That's a big wow factor. DAVID: Jimi Hendrix, man. He is one of the greatest rock and roll legends of all time. But what I bring to the table today is not only a piece of rock and roll history, but it is very well preserved.

RICK: Jimi Hendrix, he was an icon. This guy did things with the guitar that no one did before. He played a Stratocaster. DAVID: Yes. Left-handed

guitars

are few. DAVID: Right. Good. His first

guitars

were used. He couldn't find a left one. DAVID: Right. He then started playing on a right-handed guitar with the strings reversed. Even when he had money, he continued to play right-hand guitars strung backwards. Ok, do you mind if I pick it up? No, absolutely, of course. Alright. This is the holy grail. DAVID: In fact, he held this guitar that you now have in your hands and made wonderful music with it.

Are there any photos of him playing it on stage or something, or... DAVID: No, because he... it was played exclusively in the studio? This was his really favorite type of recording act. I'm going to leave this. And where did you get this from? DAVID: It was actually owned by a guy named Skip Juried. There was a studio called Juggy Sound Studio that Jimi loved to play in... - Okay. --up in York. Skip was the chief engineer at Juggy Sound Studio. And after they finished all the production on "Band of Gypsys" and all that, they gave this guitar to Skip.

When he passed away, one of my business partners and I acquired the guitar. RICK: Okay. Was this guitar in "Band of Gypsys"? Yes, he played this guitar on several albums. In fact, he also played it on "Nervous Breakdown." RICK: Okay. DAVID: Here's something that came out this year in this magazine about this specific guitar. The guy who wrote this article, you know, did a lot of extreme diligence. Plus I have, you know, a letter signed by Jimi's brother. RICK: I've seen articles where people had letters from the family. DAVID: Right. Good. OK. OK. RICK: And it turned out not to be what they said it was.

DAVID: Right. - OK? That's the big thing that scares me. How much do you want for the guitar? DAVID: I think this guitar, you know, out of all the people I've talked to, I'd be willing to take, say, 750,000 for it. RICK: I have a friend who, if this is real, he will know. And if not, he will call bullbull.. Bring him. You know what I'm talking? Alright, I'll be right back. Give me a few minutes. Awesome. Okay, thanks, man. I have nothing to hide. Let's turn on the lights very bright. This is an authentic Jimi Hendrix guitar.

I'm happy to challenge anyone you want to bring to the table to look at it because he will authenticate the guitar. This is stupidly cool. I mean, Jimi's... one of Jimi's guitars. Hendrix turned the guitar into an extension of his body. Every way he moved altered the sound of the guitar. When you see him go very low, he's doubling the... I caught the sound, right? I mean, physically bend the guitar. Good. There are very few guys who can make their own statement with the guitar anymore. But guys like Jimi Hendrix come along and take it to a whole new place.

RICK: I want to make sure this is 100% before we start talking about a lot of money. JESSE: Yeah, do you mind if I take a look at it? No, man, of course, that's why you're here. JESÉ: Impressive. There are a couple of things you'll want to look at, the tremolo bar. They are usually bent and angled. He played the guitar backwards. He flattened a lot of these, straightened them out, so they probably wouldn't crash into his arm and things like that. Another thing is what they call ring wear. If you play the guitar like that, my wedding ring hits the guitar and removes a lot of the paint finish from there.

If you look at this guitar, the top of the neck has a lot of wear. That's because the guitar was like that, how Jimi would have played it, with his left hand. In the article you guys have there, they asked a bunch of vintage dealers to take a look at this guitar with pictures and stuff like that. This serial number here, L14985, this guitar has actually been documented. Without a doubt this is definitely one of Jimi's guitars. RICK: That's really cool. In my head I think I know what it's worth, but what do you think? In my opinion, no guitar is worth anything unless everything works on it.

DAVID: Plug it in, let it run. - Let's do it. DAVID: Turn up the volume. JESSE: I can't believe this. DAVID: Okay, let's go. JESSE: That's a good guitar, man. RICK: So how much do you think it's worth? JESSE: From 750,000 to, good auction, one million. RICK: Alright, thanks, man. - Everything's fine man. Thank you. - Yeah, thanks, man. Thanks again for letting me play. - Yeah, you're welcome, man. - Thank you so much. It was crazy to keep Jimi Hendrix's guitars, man. You can see why he liked it, because it was a really good guitar, balanced and with nice feel.

RICK: On a personal level, I love it, but you have to find the right auction. It must be announced and most likely the minimum period will be one year. Good. RICK: Let me give you 450,000. 450,000? Man. RICK: My thing is that I take all the risks. You leave with the cash. For a guitar that could sell for maybe a million dollars any day, your winning guy just told you that. RICK: Okay. Come on, 450 grand? Yeah, I'm thinking 750,000, man. RICK: A lot of commissions were paid and a lot of people were paid to sell this. DAVID: Right. RICK: Maybe it's just... it's the way the world works.

DAVID: Right. OK RICK: I'll give you half a million. This guitar is worth more than that. It simply is. RICK: If you want the money now, I can go with 550,000. Knowing that it could fetch a million dollars at auction, I can't leave that much money on the table. 750,000, really, man. It's the last dollar I can accept for the guitar. Hey, we'll have a good day. Tell me if it goes up for auction. I could bid on it. Okay, thanks, man. Well... 600,000? I can't do it, man. But I'll call you if I change my mind. Okay, everything correct.

DAVID: He's fired one last bullet across the ship with... with the $600,000 offer, you know? Honestly, I was starting to get a little more tempted by it, but if you want to hit the sweet spot when selling something of great value, don't despair, and I'm not. RICK: Hey, how can I help you? I have this guitar here and I wasn't sure if I could sell it legally or not. RICK: Yeah, no one has ever asked me if it's legal to sell their guitar. And that would explain why... it's a turtle shell. OK. JON: I came to the

pawn

shop today to see if I could sell my tortoise shell guitar.

As for its value, I had no idea. If I could sell it today, that money will go towards my daughter's college. RICK: Where did you get this? JON: I bought it at a

pawn

shop and for some reason I was drawn to it. I've done some research on it. The UK government has one that they confiscated at customs, as does the Australian government. And there is a very limited supply of RICK - for centuries and centuries, people have used tortoiseshell for everything. I mean, it was highly regarded for a long time. Tortoiseshell was very popular at that time for making combs, sunglasses, guitar picks... all kinds of things.

It looks great and is incredibly durable. But some turtles were endangered, so in the early 1970s the trade in turtle shells was banned. I mean, it's really beautiful. The way the light passes through it is brown, red and orange. But my problem here right now is that I don't know if it's the early 70's or older, which would determine if it's legal for me to buy this. You have to think about it: a bald eagle feather is equivalent to a $10,000 fine. It doesn't matter if you thought it was a turkey feather, if it turns out to be a bald eagle feather, they're going to take it from you, they're going to fine you $10,000.

I can tell you that ignorance is no excuse for the law. So I've never been here today. RICK: I have a friend who has a store right down the street, so he might know the laws about it. JON: That sounds good. RICK: Okay, let me call him. JON: Okay. RICK: I've seen a lot of instruments come through the store, but never anything like this. Making a new guitar out of tortoiseshell would be illegal, so if I can verify that it is old enough and legal to own, then we are looking at an extremely

rare

find. JESSE: Hey man, how's it going? - Fairly good.

How are you? - Alright. This is the guitar I called you about. JESÉ: Wow. Maybe a sea turtle? Cool. Very cool. Guys usually call me when they have something with strings attached. I used to play in a lot of different punk rock bands when I was younger, so it's surprising that I can remember anything, let alone everything I've learned about guitars over the years. RICK: So you know anything about this stuff? JESSE: They were kind of important after World War II and the Korean War. The boys would bring them from the Pacific. And I know that they ask for a premium, they ask for a lot of money.

RICK: So do you have any idea what they sound like? JESSE: You know, I know Bluegrass guys prefer a real tortoiseshell pick because of the sound, the tone of the pick. It seems like it would be a strange scale, like the neck looks very short. But since I have no conditions, I have no idea. It might sound incredible. RICK: Okay. JESS: You know? So I mean, what are your concerns? Basically, is it legal to own? And any idea how much it's worth? JESSE: This one's a little tough, because I don't think you'll have any problems owning it because there's a lot of this stuff floating around.

It's been around forever, people have been doing things with turtles. But I don't know whether to sell it. I think one that is very well made could probably fetch some money. And someone did a lot of work on the inlay. You can see that the rosette pattern around the mouth matches the binding and such. But this is a difficult question. Honestly, man, I wouldn't touch this with a 10-foot pole. There are people who have served 10 months of house arrest and have paid like $20,000 in fines for selling these things illegally. That's something I would worry about, you know?

RICK: Okay. Thanks man. JESSE: Okay, no problem. See you later. JON: Hey, thanks. Good luck with that, man. JON: Okay, thank you. I'm going to look at my options on what I can and can't do with it. I have two daughters and I don't want them to visit me in prison. - (Corey) What do we have here? - A custom-made Quad Stringmaster guitar. It was built by Leo Fender for my father, Noel Boggs. He played electric guitar in the '40s and '50s, starting with Roy Rogers and Bob Wills' band. - Forgive me, I had never heard of them.

It's definitely really cool. I've seen lapped steels, I've never seen four like this. I spent about six months as a kid trying to learn how to play a regular guitar. I couldn't imagine trying to play four at the same time. - Today I am here in the store because I would like to sell my father's Quad Stringmaster guitar. My father was Noel Boggs and this guitar was built by him and Leo Fender. Leo Fender was the creator and designer of Fender Electrics, which was and is one of the most prestigious guitar manufacturers in the world. - What you have here is really interesting.

Leo Fender and your dad basically created this. Is this a one-off thing or did you guys ever really go into production with it? - All of my father's guitars were unique, they were number one in the first part of the line. My dad was kind of a token player to see if it was going to work. -And I'm sure Leo Fender, doing four at the same time, would think that he probably needed an expert like your father. It's great. Rock and roll as we know it would not exist without Leo Fender. He created some of the most popular guitars in the world without even knowing how to play them.

The fact that he built this himself makes it pretty bad. I just don't know enough to put a price on it. What are you looking to get out of this? - (sigh) $50,000. - Well. Um... This is so far out of my realm, so I'll have a friend of mine come over and take a look. He will know a lot more about this than I do. Do you mind? - (Danielle) Not a bit. - (Corey) I'll be right back. - I love the idea of ​​an expert coming to see this guitar. He will immediately recognize your value and your uniqueness.

So I called Jesse to come and help me with this. Check it out. - Oh, wow. Cool. - Now I have seen lapped steels but I have never seen one like this before. Not to mention his father and Leo Fender created it and I guess it's the first. - Hmm. Who was your dad? - (Danielle) My dad was Noel Boggs. - Oh. Very very cool. Especially country swing and western swing. He was kind of your go-to person, your father. - (Danielle) Exactly. - (Jesse) This was the Stringmaster, Fender's top of the range. He probably had a bunch of these at some point, right? - He did. -Yes.-He would approach Leo and say: I'm doing this job and you need to have this type of tuning. - (Jesse) I'm sure a guy like your dad probably played multiple tunings and songs, so it was almost a necessity to be able to have all foursound they are known for today.

What brought you to this guitar? -The 12-string 450 that they started making in '64, and they only made seven in '65, so it's a pretty

rare

guitar. - So they only made seven this year? - Yeah. - I mean, that's pretty interesting if it's true. I have no idea, but I do know there are far fewer of them than, say, Fenders and Gibsons. And how much are you looking for? - I ask you for 5,000. - I mean, for a 1965 guitar, 5,000 seems to be in the ballpark of a lot of the ones I've seen. Let's be honest, I've seen some of these things sell for $100,000, you know? - Oh yeah. - Looking at it, it shows some wear, but to me it looks like normal wear that you would get in the 60's.

I would really like my friend to come over and tell me what he thinks about the value and then we can talk about the price. - Oh, of course. - Give me a few minutes. I'll see if I can get him here and then we'll leave. - Well. My biggest concern with the expert is that they price it too low. I hope the expert really knows the Rickenbacker and its history and how rare this particular model is. Well, this is the Rickenbacker I called you. - This guitar is great. Rickenbacker has a long history credited with the first electric guitar.

You certainly have a sort of fixation on that jangly, niche, chime sound that you don't hear with just any old guitar. - Well, this guy says it's a 1965 Rickenbacker, and I don't know how to verify it by the serial number, but guess who does. - The serial number of that guitar will be a bridge stamp. You will see two letters on the left. - I see an E and an S. - Okay, that will mean 1965 in June. - Okay, well, that authenticates the date. Do you want to take a look at the status and tell me what you think? - Do you mind if I take a look? - Of course forward. - Alright.

Then I'll look at the neck. And this actually has a little bit of arc, but it's not bad. Everything appears to be original. - I have an amplifier down here. I was hoping we could plug it in and make sure all the electronics sounded the best and worked well. - Absolutely. Good idea. - Okay, here you go. In fact, I have it all set up. - So we're just going to try the switch that moves from this pickup to both pickups, changing the sound. And let's try the knobs. You have your volumes and your tones. And everything is checked. - Okay, good, good.

What kind of value can you place on this? - It's strange, but it was Rickenbacker's lowest cost 12-string instrument. I mean, it's a wonderful guitar, but it's not on the hit list of top-tier Rickenbacker collectors. Retail trade, 2,500. - 2,500? Alright, I appreciate you coming, Scott. - Anytime, thank you. Take care. - Thank you. - Okay, well, I know you probably don't agree with what he said about the price, but that being said, I'm still interested in buying it. I'm at 1,500. What do you think? - Yes, I can't leave it for 1,500. I just can't stoop that low. - Well, what would your price be? - 2,500. - Oh, man, you gotta give me some space there. - Tell me your best number. - 1,800. - That's terribly low for me. - What is your best price? - 2,000. - 19. - 21. - 2000 is a deal.

What about that? - Deal. - Very well, let's write some paperwork, and it seems that I bought a new guitar. - We were negotiating, but obviously we were not on the same page at all. But we came to a number that I think we can both live with. RICK: Hey, how's it going? I wonder if you could take a look at this for me? I got this guitar from me, my father. It was given to him by an old man and apparently he wore it to Al Capone. It's a Gibson L7 hollow body, and the guy who played it, he played it for Al Capone's birthday.

Well, I don't really play the guitar, so I'd rather have the money. I hope to get $3500 for it. So tell me the story. He apparently had a concert and he just knows that he's supposed to play it at someone's birthday party. And they were getting ready to play, and all of a sudden the doors started closing and a couple of guys with some Uzis started coming through the door. Apparently it was Al Capone's birthday. RICK: Okay. BILLY: If it was played for Al Capone's birthday, does that make it more

valuable

? No. BILLY: or something like that?

Not at all, huh? No collector gives a damn if some guy once played his guitar for Al Capone. If I told you I played for Obama last week, would you believe me? Wow. RICK: One of the misconceptions about antiques is that if they were in one place at a certain time, they are worth more money. What they care about is what type of guitar it is and what condition it is in. Okay, the neck looks a little bent. There is separation here and these frets are very worn. You see it? It was a little worn, needed some restoration work, but when you're talking about a 1942 Gibson L7, which was a slightly higher-end model at the time, there was money to be made.

So how much do you want to sell it for? I estimate it is $3,500. Did Capone buy it? No. RICK: Okay. I'll pay you $1,000 for it. - If, according. BILLY: Okay. You understood it. RICK: Alright, thanks a lot, man. Thank you. I'm very happy that Billy came today with the guitar. I can do some preservation work with it, I can sell it to a collector and that guitar will be there for another 50 or 100 years. JIM: Oh, hello, Rick. Hey man, how are you? How are you? RICK: Oh, pretty good. How does it come out? It turned out really well, man.

I think you'll like this. JIM: Guitars are my passion. I've been working on guitars since 1976. We took out all the old frets, leveled them, and re-polished them. On the part of the body that was scratched and looking dirty, I actually wet sanded the entire guitar with 3000 grit and then buffed it to 6000 grit, so that's the original paint that was underneath all that. That's beautiful, man. JIM: On the back, we didn't really do much to the splits because they're solid. You've got some shrinkage here. You know, it's so dry in the desert, the lack of humidity, the wood, it will shrink like up to 20% dimensional.

If you ship this across the ocean or somewhere humid, it will probably eventually grow back to its original size. RICK: I like how you left this to play, it looks like it played. JIM: Yeah, I didn't want it to look new, because the more original it is, the better off you're going to be with these things. So what do you think? Are you happy? I'm in love with him, man. JIM: Yes? It's, it's beautiful, it really is. When I saw the guitar, I was impressed. This boy is good. So the fingerboard level with the fret was $350, and then all the hand polishing material was $100, so it's $450 total.

OK. The money to restore this guitar was worth it. I thought a simple restoration job would net me $2,500. But with such a nice restoration job, I really think I can get about $3,500 now. The next time you buy a guitar that needs repair, that's where you'll go, no doubt.